Adult theme park gets Chinese talking about sex

Reuters Staff

3 Min Read

BEIJING (Reuters Life!) - China’s is building its first sexually explicit theme park, and the giant genitalia sculptures and suggestive exhibits are getting many people hot and bothered in a country where talking about sex is still taboo.

<p>Labourers install statues in an exhibition hall at Love Land theme park, currently under construction, in Chongqing municipality May 15, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer</p>

Love Land is set to open in October in the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing and will feature exhibitions about sexual history and how to use condoms properly. It will also host sex technique workshops, the China Daily newspaper said.

A picture of the main entrance shows a signboard bearing the park’s name being straddled by a giant pair of women’s legs topped by a red thong.

The park’s manager, Lu Xiaoqing, said Love Land would help people “enjoy a harmonious sex life.”

“We are building the park for the good of the public,” Lu said. “Sex is a taboo subject in China but people really need to have more access to information about it.”

Sex is not a topic for open discussion in China, where government figures show only 7 percent of women and slightly over 8 percent of men get immediate medical help for sexual problems.

Earlier this year, the government launched a national sex education campaign aimed at getting more people to seek treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and infertility, to try and break some of the taboos.

<p>A woman washes her hands at a specially designed wash basin in a public toilet at the under construction "Love Land" theme park in Chongqing municipality April 10, 2007. REUTERS/Stringer</p>

The newspaper said the park was inspired by a similar attraction on South Korea’s Jeju island, also called Loveland.

China’s Love Land appears to be helping to get the conversation going. Months before it opens, the park is already generating heated discussions among bloggers in cyberspace.

“It’s just too much,” wrote blogger “Autumn Rain” on the popular Chinese portal baidu.com. “It’s only about getting your heart to beat faster.”

“Overseas, this park would be considered artistic. But in Chongqing, it’s just vulgar,” wrote “Big Scandal.”

Other bloggers supported the idea.

“I don’t object. Young people need to start sex education young as China has a problem when it comes to this,” wrote “Eaglefly.”

Park manager Lu said he was happy with all the debate.

“It is quite normal to see so much discussion about it,” he said. “I have found that the majority of people support my idea but I have to pay attention and not make the park look vulgar and nasty.”